Patent Document 1 discloses, for example, a depositing and dispensing machine which is placed in a teller counter of a bank, and is shared by two tellers on the right and left sides of the machine. The depositing and dispensing machine is a so-called circulating depositing and dispensing machine. Specifically, the machine includes, in a casing, a depositing unit in which banknotes are introduced, a recognition unit configured to count and recognize the banknotes, an escrow unit configured to temporarily retain the recognized banknotes, a storage unit configured to store the banknotes retained in the escrow unit after the deposit of the banknotes is confirmed, and a dispensing unit which is provided with a shutter, and from which the banknotes fed from the storage unit are dispensed in dispensing.
The depositing and dispensing machine performs the depositing in the following manner. Specifically, the banknotes are introduced in the depositing unit. Then, an operation for starting the predetermined depositing is performed. Then, the banknotes introduced in the depositing unit are fed one by one, and are recognized and counted by the recognition unit. The recognized banknotes are temporarily retained in the escrow unit. When the deposit of the banknotes is confirmed with all the banknotes introduced in the depositing unit fed and temporarily retained in the escrow unit, the banknotes temporarily retained in the escrow unit are stored in the storage unit. Thus, the depositing is finished. When an operation for canceling the deposit of the banknotes is performed with all the banknotes introduced in the depositing unit fed and temporarily retained in the escrow unit, the banknotes temporarily retained in the escrow unit are not stored in the storage unit, but are returned to the depositing unit.
In this depositing and dispensing machine, the escrow unit may become full when a large amount of banknotes is deposited ata time. In this case, conventional depositing and dispensing machines may experience the following disadvantage. Specifically, when the escrow unit becomes full, the depositing cannot proceed. Accordingly, for example, a predetermined operation has to be performed to store the banknotes in the escrow unit in the storage unit. Then, when the storage unit is filled with the banknotes, the casing has to be opened to expose the storage unit outside to remove the banknotes stored in the storage unit. Thus, in depositing a large amount of banknotes at a time in the conventional depositing and dispensing machine, the teller has to carry out a certain operation to take care of the apparatus every time when the escrow unit or the storage unit becomes full, which is troublesome to the teller. Further, the depositing is interrupted every time when the teller carries out the operation, thereby increasing time required for the depositing. This increases customers'waiting time, and decreases efficiency of transactions at teller's windows.
As disclosed by Patent Document 2, for example, increasing a capacity of the escrow unit may be a possible solution to such a disadvantage. This can prevent the escrow unit from becoming full.
However, even when the capacity of the escrow unit is increased, some operation has to be performed during the depositing as described above when the amount of the deposited banknotes exceeds the increased capacity of the escrow unit.
Further, increase in capacity of the escrow unit in the casing increases the size of the apparatus. This is not preferable for the depositing and dispensing machine placed in the teller counter. To precisely stack the banknotes in the escrow unit of increased capacity, a mechanism for processing the banknotes is required as disclosed by Patent Document 2, for example. The provision of the processing mechanism disadvantageously complicates the structure of the apparatus. Increasing the capacity of the storage unit may be another solution to the above disadvantage. However, also in this case, the size of the apparatus increases. The same is applied to the apparatus in which the escrow unit is not provided, and the banknotes are directly stored in the storage unit.
For example, Patent Document 3 discloses a banknote processing machine including a depositing unit, a recognition unit, and a stacking unit configured to stack the banknotes which are introduced in the depositing unit, and are recognized by the recognition unit. In this machine, the stacking unit is open outside the casing, and the banknotes stacked therein can easily be removed by hand. Thus, in handling a large amount of banknotes at a time in this machine, the banknotes stacked in the stacking unit can quickly be removed by hand before, or immediately after the stacking unit becomes full. This can avoid interruption of the depositing, or allows easy restart of the depositing, if interrupted. This can reduce a period for the interruption as much as possible.
However, this machine is merely a banknote processing machine which does not include the storage unit configured to store the banknotes, and cannot perform the depositing and the dispensing.
The depositing in the depositing and dispensing machine has been described above. However, the same disadvantage occurs in the dispensing. Specifically, in dispensing a large amount of banknotes at a time, the dispensing is interrupted, and the shutter has to be opened to remove the banknotes from the dispensing unit every time when the dispensing unit becomes full.
Such a disadvantage is not particular to the depositing/dispensing of the banknotes in/from the depositing and dispensing machine. The same disadvantage may occur in depositing and dispensing coins.